'How I Met Your Mother': It's Funnier Than You Think

By Lindsey Bahr

CBS

Saturday Night Live's Will Forte reprised his role as Randy on How I Met Your Mother this week to somewhat mixed results. As perhaps the clumsiest employee to work at Goliath National Bank, Forte treated us to some amusing moments of slapstick and squeaky-voiced awkwardness. He was there for more than comedic purposes though. All of the characters this week were challenged to sacrifice their workplace popularity for professional credibility, and for Marshall that meant betraying his desire to be kind in order to fire the truly incompetent Randy.

The most baffling part of HIMYM this week, however, wasn't actually in the broadcast. A few hours before the episode aired, a numberof tweets started surfacing about some beer ad associated with "Canning Randy" that wasn't suited for TV, and only available on the website CollegeHumor:

For a show that doesn't shy away from raunchy or crude subjects, the ad isn't shocking enough to merit the CollegeHumor-only release. Thus, was it just a tool to try to promote the episode through the use of one of its guest stars? If so, this very unfunny clip is indicative of a lingering issue with HIMYM—they too often hype the worst moments. Even the short clips chosen for CBS.com are rarely the funniest of the episode.

A common theme with those who fancy themselves fans of more sophisticated sitcoms is that they find HIMYM lacking. While it's true that there are some real low points in every episode, generally these are counteracted by moments of humor and wit and the occasional insight that make the show worth watching. "Canning Randy" was a fine episode overall, but unfortunately these promotion techniques only did little justice to support that fact.